Ash and Debris on Kizimen Volcano

Credit:

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Robert Simmon.

Hot lava, volcanic debris, and ash cover the slopes of Kizimen Volcano in these natural-color satellite images, collected 11 days apart. Both images were acquired by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Changes visible between the two images indicate the nearly continuous activity of the volcano, located on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

Lava seeped from the summit on January 21, 2013 (top image), growing a flow that began in October 2010. It now extends all the way down Kizimen’s eastern flank. Frequent hot avalanches that spill from the summit and steep-sided lava flow leave behind deposits of dark debris. East of the volcano, a layer of tan ash covers the snowy mountains.

By February 1 (lower image) snow obscured the older ash and debris, but fresh material had already appeared. A thin layer of ash coated snow to the south, while fan-shaped debris stretched from the summit to the south and east.

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This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.